The University and College Union (UCU) introduced three demands to serve as a platform for the coming weeks of the strike at their third Student-Staff Assembly (SSA) on Wednesday 14 October.
Over the past three weeks, the UCU has engaged in both physical and digital picket lines in response to the University’s planned £90m staff-budget cuts.
In addition to picket lines, strike members have organized more that 60 teach-outs, workshops, and rallies to reach a wider audience. One rally at Holyrood drew an estimated 700 people.
To form a more united front, organizers and focus groups this week developed three core demands that distill the assembly’s argument into simplified, memorable phrasing.
The demands, in order, are to “stop the cuts,” “disclose, divest, democratise,” and “resign, resign, resign.”
“Stop the cuts,” seeks to reverse Principal and Vice-Chancellor Pete Mathieson’s budget cuts, addressing the university’s shift away from staff and towards capital.
“Disclose, divest, democratise” demands for the exposure of university investment information, and calls for the Senate to have oversight and veto power on academic and ethical matters. This section also calls for the Responsible Investment Advisory Group to be rebuilt as a transparent body.
The final demand insists on the resignation of Mathieson and Provost Kim Graham. This new foundation was approved through a vote almost unanimously by students and staff, with one abstaintion.
One PhD student said: “the engagement from both sides, especially the student side since the inaugural SSA, has been really heartening and I believe that with a clear voice and consensus over what we want, we are in a great position to push and achieve them.”
150 people sat in the audience of the Assembly on Wednesday, only a third of the attendance of the last meeting. With this, however, students said they were motivated to join the fight for the next two weeks of the UCU strike.
A student in the audience said, “It makes me more curious […] there is some level of passion that’s tied to a need and a room for change.”
Image by Sophie Loiacano for The Student.
